Reader reactions: Fear, rage and blame over jammed parks

1of4Even though the state has a shelter-in-place order, Stinson Beach and roads in West Marin were crowded on March 21, 2020.Photo: Marin County Fire Dept.

2of4Some people clearly were not practicing social distancing at crowded Baker Beach in San Francisco on Saturday.Photo: Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle

3of4People are seen walking and jogging at Chrissy Field on this the 5th day of the city wide shelter in place order in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, March 21, 2020.Photo: Nick Otto / Special to The Chronicle

4of4People in the parking lot at Rodeo Beach during the shelter-in-place orders on Sunday, March 22, 2020 in Marin County, California. Many surfers went out because they were concerned that beaches would soon be closed.Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

In Half Moon Bay over the weekend, amid coronavirus fears and shelter-at-home orders mixed with great weather and the arrival of spring, residents looked out their doors and found Highway 1 jammed as far as they could see.

“Why are you telling people to go to Half Moon Bay?” Eulalia Hayden wrote to me in a surprise email. “Tell them to stay home.”

I wrote no such story last week. However, over the past few days, I’ve been flooded with emails and social media mentions from angry readers accusing me of causing traffic pile-ups and crowding at their favorite parks and trails.

Bay Area residents swarmed parks and outdoor spaces across the region over the weekend. The situation deteriorated into gridlock at Stinson Beach and Point Reyes Station in Marin. It was so overwhelming that rangers shut down most of the Point Reyes National Seashore.

“The grocery store in Point Reyes Station had to close and your article may have been part of the reason,” wrote Alison Wood.

At Berkeley’s Tilden Regional Park, the lots filled early and visitors parked illegally on the nearby roadways. Cars were left jutting into the lanes of traffic on many roads, as well as in crosswalks and in front of gates, blocking service roads to rangers.

“Your attention-seeking articles are going to be responsible for a lot of sickness, hospitalization and death,” wrote Mona Chatteril.

The front-seat view of jammed parking and cars lined up on the road's shoulder at Tilden Regional Park, from the front seat of Bob Doyle, general manager of the East Bay Regional Park District

Photo: Bob Doyle

Since the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order came down this month, I have been writing articles encouraging people to get outdoors to exercise as a means of staying physically and mentally healthy. I’ve also been covering the closures of campgrounds and parks in Northern California as they have unfolded in real time over the past two weeks.

Although the county and state orders are designed to isolate residents in their homes, they include allowances for people to get outdoors: “Individuals may leave their residence … to engage in outdoor activity, provided the individuals comply with the social distancing requirements, such as, by way of example and without limitation, walking, hiking, or running.”

Many are reminding people that getting into nature is a helpful means of coping with stress during this difficult period. For example, in a New York Times opinion piece about dealing with self-isolation published over the weekend, astronaut Scott Kelly advises people to get outside as a means of de-stressing.

Bob Doyle, general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District, said the logjams on roads and parking lots — and the ire of people living amid it — were byproducts of pent-up energy created amid the shelter-in-place order. Plus, rain the weekend before had kept people indoors.

On Sunday morning at Tilden, Doyle encountered hundreds of illegally parked cars, and then said, “In my 45 years of park work, I’ve never seen these type of crowds, not ever. People are desperate to get outside.” Later, he added: “Visitation is insane.”

As population has increased, the Bay Area has decentralized into pockets where residents want others to stay out. In the time of coronavirus, every out-of-towner is a potential carrier, and that sets off a fear of exposure, along with rage toward those not respecting the stay-at-home order by driving long distances.

“What can work is to minimize all travel, per the order, drive to and from a trailhead without diverting, and then treat everyone as if they have the virus, and act toward others as if you have it yourself,” I wrote last week.

And yet I’ve been receiving notes like this: “You should apologize.” “You are irresponsible.” “Please don’t tell people to travel to my backyard.”

If I were to add something to the articles I’ve written during the coronavirus outbreak, as suggested by readers, it would be this: Stay close to home, and walk or ride a bicycle to the trailhead, if possible.

Bay Area residents are fortunate when it comes to outdoor access. The region has spectacular landscapes and more than 10,000 miles of trails. Many people live within a 10-minute drive of a trailhead.

And yet crowding and traffic have become issues that plague these outdoor destinations — even before the shelter-in-place orders.

The bottom line, most park managers will tell you, is the Bay Area needs more parks, open space and trails, and better access to reach them, to meet the demands of the region’s growing population.

In the past 20 years, the Bay Area’s population has more than doubled from 3.5 million to 7.68 million, according to census data, with roughly the same roads, parking spaces, parks and infrastructure. There are still many lesser-traveled gems out there, but you can’t roll out on a Saturday afternoon to Half Moon Bay, west Marin or Tilden and expect to find them.

That has been magnified by the loss of common sense amid the coronavirus, the arrival of spring and violation of the stay-at-home order.

On Monday, in response to last weekend’s crowds at outdoor spaces, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered that parking lots at many state parks and beaches be closed until further notice.

After replying to upset readers over the weekend, many of my interchanges turned positive. In one case, a mountain biker from Marin who identified himself as Matt and had written me an angry note, ended up providing me with valuable insights and suggestions for future stories.

After my reply, he wrote back:

“Tom, agreed I was infuriated. Everyone is still welcome to hike & ride as they please. So in the end, I guess I owe you an apology. I have grown up in San Anselmo and I have seen the population in the Bay Area explode, just like yourself. What once was a sleepy little town is now an overcrowded disaster. Multimillion-dollar mansions being built on top of each other. I digress, I can still ride my mountain bike up Mt. Tam, I humbly apologize.”

Tom Stienstra is the outdoors writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. He is America’s first Back Country Sportsman of the Year and the only two-time National Outdoor Writer of the year. In 2008, he won first place for best outdoors column in America. As a photographer with The Chronicle, he won first place in America for best outdoors feature image in 2011. That year he was also awarded as Far West Ski Writer of the Year. His books have sold more than 1 million copies. His first novel, "The Sweet Redemption, An Inspector Korg Mystery," was released for 2013. His television show on CBS/CW won first place as America’s best outdoor recreation show, and his radio show on CBS won first place in 2010 for best environmental feature show in America. Tom has hiked 25,000 miles, caught world-record fish, led dozens of expeditions and taken part in all phases of the outdoor experience. He was the fourth living member inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.